Edtech Insiders

Send us Fan Mail Dan White is founder and CEO of Filament Games , an educational game company that’s been breaking ground in game-based learning for 18 years.  Dan believes that good gameplay and good learning are complementary rather than oppositional forces. An alumnus of Cornell University and the University of Wisconsin – Madison, Dan earned an M.S. in Education Technology under seminal learni...

Send us Fan Mail Mario Vasilescu is co-founder of Readocracy, an online learning platform that makes all the content you consume count. Readocracy includes a knowledge profile that quantifies and showcases your passions, private insights like a “Fitbit for your information diet”, and social features that reward people for being well-informed. With his team, they are on a mission to create a future...

Send us Fan Mail Bridgette Leslie is the Co-Founder, CEO of IEP&Me, Inc. Bridgette had spent her career as a special educator, focusing on creating inclusive classrooms, fostering self-awareness advocacy with her students, and triggering innovation in several school settings. As an entrepreneur, she's been accepted into the ODX Accelerator, achieved a NewSchools Venture Fund grant, and re...

Send us Fan Mail Melda Akin is the CEO and founder of D14.AI and STEM training organization Sirius Labs . D14.AI provides an AI-driven software platform for healthcare clinics, gyms, and logistics companies to optimize their workforce and manage business operations in an easy, secure and affordable way.  Before launching D14.AI into Dubai’s burgeoning tech start-up scene, Akin was a software devel...

Send us Fan Mail Kim Smith is the founder of LearnerStudio, an equity-focused education investment studio being incubated inside Cambiar Education.  She is also the founder and CEO of the Pahara Institute, a national nonprofit that aims to identify, strengthen, and sustain diverse high-potential leaders who are transforming public education.  Immediately prior, she was co-founder of Bellwether Edu...

Send us Fan Mail Anada Lakra is the co-founder and CEO of BoldVoice . Her mission is to empower every non-native English speaker to fulfill their potential through confident English. . BoldVoice is an app that helps learners to improve their English speaking clarity and confidence through videos from Hollywood accent coaches and instant feedback from speech artificial intelligence. Previously, Ana...

Send us Fan Mail Ryan Craig is a Managing Director at Achieve Partners and was formerly an MD at University Ventures. Ryan’s commentary on where the puck is going in education and workforce regularly appears in the biweekly Gap Letter , Forbes , and Inside Higher Education . He is the author of the upcoming book Apprentice Nation: How the "Earn and Learn" Alternative to Higher Education...

Send us Fan Mail Al Kingsley has over 30 years’ experience in educational technology and digital safeguarding. For the last 25 years Al has been the Group Managing Director of NetSupport, an international software company developing market-leading software solutions used by over 18 million customers, designed to support the effective use of instructional technology in classrooms alongside eSafety...

Send us Fan Mail Sheryl Cababa is a multi-disciplinary design strategist with more than two decades of experience and has worked extensively in human-centered design within the social impact space. She specializes in developing tools and methods for designers to expand their mindsets beyond user-centered design, anticipate unintended consequences, and engage in systems thinking. Some of her recent...

Send us Fan Mail In this Week in Edtech, Ben and Alex talk about the rise of open-source LLMs and what it means for education, Sam Altman's Congressional testimony and coming AI regulations, and  systemic changes affecting the entire Edtech venture landscape. We also speak to Hussainatu (Hussa) Blake, who leads Edtech and Workforce for the Patrick J. McGovern Foundation about global AI and Ed...

Send us Fan Mail Adrian Ridner is the Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Study.com and an industry leader in education technology. Adrian has created the leading online learning platform in the world at delivering a personalized learning experience to students and teachers from grade school through college and beyond. Adrian has spent the past two decades bringing together academic experts...

Send us Fan Mail Katie Kirsch is a designer, engineer, and social entrepreneur. At Stanford, IDEO, and Designer Fund, she has launched several products, programs, and ventures in education. A few favorite projects have included working & living at a K-12 boarding school in India, scaling a menstrual healthcare organization in Uganda, and road​-​tripping across the US for 14 weeks in an RV to t...

Send us Fan Mail Audrey Wisch is the CEO and Co-Founder and Curious Cardinals, a global community where K-12 students discover and pursue their passions, build confidence, and unlock their greatest potential with the guidance of college mentors they aspire to be. Audrey started Curious Cardinals as an undergraduate at Stanford University; after teaching her first workshop on mass incarceration to...

Send us Fan Mail In this Episode, Guests: Nishaad Balachandran of Avathon Capital on Private Equity for Edtech  Kavitta Ghai of Nectir on the launch of Soma, their new AI community tool Big Story:  Byju's Properties Raided by Indian Authorities Explained: Why Edtech start-up Byju’s is facing heat from ED Other articles discussed: Teachers Feel Growing Obligation to Incorporate ChatGPT Califor...

Send us Fan Mail Michael Wegerbauer is the Vice President, Learning Solutions/Educational Publishing at M & R Consultants Corporation (MRCC). With 25 years of experience focused on technology in education, project management, process improvement, technology consulting, and business development, Michael spent 6+ years at UCLA developing solutions to support both administrative and educational i...

Send us Fan Mail News Covered:  MICROSCHOOLING: New Research Reveals The Breadth And Impact Of The Microschooling Movement Forbes INDIA: THE HAVES AND THE HAVE-NOTS Unacademy To Be Profitable At Group Level In April: CEO Gaurav Munjal Upstart Ed-tech Firm Simplilearn Plans Acquisitions, Expansion Amid Funding Winter : Business Standard upGrad to expand Study Abroad programme in Africa, South-East...

Send us Fan Mail Perry Kalmus is the co-founder of Akala , which is leveling the playing field for college admissions by providing best-in-class college advising to learners who would not have been able to afford it through technology. Before Akala, Perry ran the Princeton Education Network for over a decade together with his co-founder Barbara - who is also his mother. Together, they have helped...

Send us Fan Mail Amy Bevilacqua is a Managing Partner of Green Street Impact Partners. With over 30 years of experience at the intersection of the education, media and technology sectors, she has an abiding passion for advancing innovation and scaling education companies that deliver on learner-centered missions. Amy believes in impact investing in the future of education.

Send us Fan Mail Ashley Chiampo is the Chief Learning Officer at the Emeritus Institute of Management, an online learning company. Shehas over 20 years of experience supporting people and organizations to reach learning goals and achieve greater effectiveness. Her background includes working with CXOs and senior leaders in small private companies, international development organizations, and multi...

Send us Fan Mail In this special "live" (or at least, unedited and recorded the same day it is published) episode, Ben and Alex discuss the growing narrative that Edtech company Chegg is 'the first victim of ChatGPT', which has caused a 40% reduction in its stock price this week, and its implications for the sector. 

Send us Fan Mail Chuck Cohn is the Founder, Chairman & CEO of Nerdy (parent company of Varsity Tutors). Chuck founded the company in 2007 during his junior year of college after experiencing frustration finding the personalized help he needed for a calculus course. He spent his early career working in energy & power investment banking at Wells Fargo Securities (Wachovia) and healthcare pri...

Send us Fan Mail Fadl and Nexford University are on a mission to solve the world's biggest challenge: education. As a next-generation university, Nexford is set to positively impact millions of lives globally. Nexford’s two core principles are: • A lack of education is the root cause of most global challenges; and • People should be able to access economic opportunities, irrespective of physi...

Send us Fan Mail Nancy Soni is the CEO/Co-Founder of PathMatch , an early career talent marketplace/platform connecting college students to modern careers, skills, and companies for internships and jobs. We're disrupting the antiquated campus recruiting processes that have left millions of students and graduates behind.  PathMatch is an open marketplace where employers can search and connect...

Send us Fan Mail Tiffany Green is the founder of Uprooted Academy™, an Edtech platform designed to give students courage, confidence, and competitiveness in the college application process. Tiffany is a Black, first-generation Edtech founder merging mental health and college access. She is also an adjunct faculty of undergraduate and graduate psychology and serves as a licensed therapist and colle...

Send us Fan Mail Rebecca Agostino is the Vice President of Learning at Multiverse, leading the program, coaching and intervention teams for the US region.  Previously, she was the founding principal of Freedom Prep High School, a college-preparatory school in Camden, New Jersey, and a special educator in New York City. Rebecca graduated as a Robertson Scholar from Duke University with a BS in Econ...